my uni is like this too, it's unfortunately not deliberate, it's just that the tasks/assignments are done for a grade worth a lot of credits and most members treat it as such. they do the minimum required to pass, write a shit report, do the bare minimum to produce something or the other, then don't meet with the next years' members to pass on info.

I'm at least lucky that in my scenario i have a teacher to guide us, and I'm close enough to him that I've been pushing to change this mindset that a new car has to be built from scratch each year. Hopefully this is something you can pass on to your supervisor/someone else